Telephone Contact System (TCS)

The Telephone Contact System (TCS) is a pilot program being coordinated by the Service Department at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Branch Office. The objective of the program is to facilitate preaching to those who may show a slight sign of interest in their own language.

The role of the Jehovah’s Witness, as a Caller within the program, is to allow them to place calls into the system. An instructional video has been prepared that provides a brief overview of the arrangement, explains the Jehovah’s Witness’s role in making this initiative a success, and shows how to use the TCS program. Please click on the following button and watch the entire video:

The pilot program is rolled out on an invitation only basis. After the chosen candidates have watched the instructional video, they are required to activate their account on the TCS. If they have any technical issues with the system, they are to reach out to their local program oversight for assistance.

The program is based on deceit. From the 8 minute 30 second mark, the victim of the sales pitch is led to believe that the person at the other end of the line is a friend of the person who initiated contact. This is not true. Though both persons are “friends” only in the fact that they share the same religion and are working together to share the same message, they are as much strangers to each other as the victim is to the initiator. The purpose of deceiving the person into believing that it’s a friend on the other end of the line is to give the impression that this is simply a friendly chat with no other motive than to become friendly with each other. However, the reality is, this is no less deceitful than a scam call.

Transcript of the video

00:00:04 In this presentation, we will discuss a tool called telephone contact system, or TCS.

00:00:12 What is the purpose of this tool? The purpose is to allow an interested person to hear the good news in their mother tongue by connecting them to a publisher who speaks their language.

00:00:25 How does it work? If a person shows interest but has another mother tongue or speaks a language the publisher does not understand, sharing the good news can be a challenge.

00:00:37 If that particular language is available on TCS, the publisher can call a friend who speaks that language. The friend referred to in this presentation as the phone contact would then give a witness to the interested person in his or her mother tongue.

00:00:56 The phone contact who took the call will be the one to follow up on the interest.

00:01:02
You will be able to follow the same procedure regardless of the circumstances in which you are giving a witness. Imagine this couple is about to ring a doorbell. A woman steps out. The sister greets her, gives her a witness and finds out that the person speaks a language that is available on TCS.

00:01:23 What does she do? This is the right time to call a friend who speaks that language.

00:01:29 This friend then continues giving a witness, and if the person shows further interest, the publisher on the phone can ask the woman for her contact information and follow up on the interest.

00:01:43 How do you go about calling someone who speaks the target language, be it a brother, to give a witness to a man, or a sister to give a witness to a woman.

00:01:53 In the e-mail, you will find the invitation to create your TCS account. This will give you access to the website as seen on the slide.

00:02:03 Sometimes the e-mail may end up in your spam folder. In addition to the profile button, you will see two tabs.

00:02:12 Under the phone tab, you will find all available languages. To choose a language, just tap on the desired one. If you are connected to the Internet, whether on mobile data or Wi-Fi, the button will show green borders if a brother or sister is available to take your call.

00:02:31 The name on the button is the name of the publisher who will pick up your phone call. If the button has a red border, this means no one is available at the time. What happens then? A pre-recorded message is played in the language you are calling. Please let the interested one listen to this message.

00:02:51 The pre-recorded message invites the interested person to ask you for spiritual help and draws his attention to JW org.

00:03:01 If you are not connected to the Internet, will you still be able to call with TCS?

00:03:07 Yes, but the button border will be black, meaning you will not know whether a publisher is available to take your call nor what their name is.

00:03:17 But whatever the colour of the button border, you will just have to press it to place a call.

00:03:24 Here are a few features you might find interesting being that some prefer not to lend their phone or some are reluctant to use someone else’s phone.

00:03:34 What can you do then? You can offer to make a conference call.

00:03:38 How does it work? When you press on the button to place a call, you will have two options.

00:03:44 Select either a regular call, the scenario we just discussed, or a conference call. To initiate a conference call, ask the person for his telephone number and enter it in the field underneath the button labelled conference call. Then press on the conference call button.

00:04:03 The phone contact picks up. You introduce yourself and the phone contact will call the interested person to add him to the call.

00:04:12 The interested person just picks up the call and the conference call has started. From then on, even if you end the call on your phone, the conversation will continue between the interested person and the phone contact.

00:04:31 How can you help an interested person who is deaf or hard of hearing? You will find in some literature cards orange signs to be placed on the display of the cart having the sign language symbol. Why? Because the deaf do not expect that there will be something offered that is tailored to them. Therefore it is necessary to draw their attention.

00:04:54 If you agree to your Internet connection being used, wear the badge. If a person who is deaf walks up to you, press on the button for sign language on TCS.
00:05:05 What happens then? The system will generate a video call instead of an audio call. That is why you will need an Internet connection.

00:05:15 After introducing yourself to the telephone contact, show your screen to the interested person.

00:05:24 Third feature.

00:05:25 Some prefer to use the Internet to place calls. Is that possible?

00:05:30 Yes, you just need to go to profile and activate the option, Prefers Calling Over Internet. Your calls will then be placed using your Internet connection, if you are connected. Or else, the system will automatically default to a regular telephone call.

00:05:50 Let us now look at the second tab, My History.

00:05:54 After each call, a new line will appear in the history tab of the publisher who placed the call as well as in the history tab of the one who picked up the call.

00:06:04 When you click on a line, a green button appears. It allows you to call back the phone contact who picked up your call. And the phone contact also has the option to call the publisher who initiated the call.

00:06:19 Why is this useful? It happens regularly that interested ones do not know their phone number by heart. In that case, the same phone contact may need to be called back once the interested person has found his number. You can also use that feature to call back the phone contact if for any reason the call was interrupted.

00:06:41 The history will automatically be deleted after one month. You can also erase them immediately by sliding the line to the left and pressing on the X button that will appear.

00:06:57 Two more comments before moving on to a practical exercise. First, if a publisher shown as available cannot pick up and you are transferred to his personal voicemail, what should you do?

00:07:11 Simply hang up and call back. Please note it may take several seconds from the time you initiate the call to the time the phone contact’s telephone rings for the first time.

00:07:23 If you hear a ringtone, please wait at least 20 seconds before hanging up and calling back.

00:07:30 Second, at times the person you are witnessing to may tell you what country he or she comes from and not their language. How can you proceed if you do not know what language is spoken in that country?

00:07:46 Type the name of the country in the search bar.

00:07:49 Languages spoken in that country and available in TCS will display on your screen.

00:07:57 Let us walk through various situations and try to determine what to do. You are in the park and are giving a witness to a lady.

00:08:06 If her mother tongue is the language of your congregational group and the person shows interest, what do you do? Leave your phone in your pocket and follow up on the interest yourself.

00:08:18 If you notice that the person speaks another language and seems interested, what do you say?

00:08:25 For instance, I hear an accent.

00:08:27 Do you speak another language?

00:08:30 If her language is available in TCS, you can say, “A friend of mine speaks your language. Would you mind if I call him or her?”

00:08:40 Often, the person’s reaction at that point is a good indication of his real interest.

00:08:46 When you call the phone contact, how do you introduce yourself?

00:08:51 For example, by saying, “Hello, Jane. This is Isaac. I’m with a lovely lady who speaks Arabic. Would you mind providing her with some information in her language?”

00:09:03 If the lady does not speak any language you know, what then?

00:09:08 Try to understand where she comes from or which language she speaks.

00:09:13 Do your best to communicate to her that you have a friend who speaks her language.

00:09:18 If the lady is willing to speak on the phone, how would you then introduce yourself to the telephone contact?

00:09:25 You could say, “Hello, Jane, this is Isaac. I’m with a lovely lady but I am unable to communicate with her. Would you mind explaining to her what our ministry is about?” Then let the phone contact give the lady a witness.

00:09:42 If the lady gives you her phone number after having heard the pre-recorded message, or simply is interested but does not have time to talk right then ,what can you do? A little later at a time when a phone contact is available, you can set up a conference call using the number the lady gave you.

00:10:02 You will first be connected with the phone contact. After briefly explaining the situation, let the phone contact initiate the conference call.

00:10:11 You can then explain to the lady that you are calling her back with a friend who speaks her language and let the phone contact give her a witness.

00:10:25 In conclusion, what would we like you to do? Please take every opportunity to use this excellent tool by helping as many people as possible get in touch with publishers who speak their language.

00:10:39 Of course, you can use this system when witnessing at the literature cart, but also in any other setting or any other form of witnessing, including in the house-to-house work without changing anything to the way territories are worked.

00:10:55 We look forward to hearing your experiences and your ministry with much interest and wish you many blessings.